March books 2012

This month I've been a bit short on Non-Fiction. Just the one. It's Judy Robertson's Out of Mormonism, which follows the struggle of one woman to leave that religion.

There is only one plain fiction novel this month. It's Henning Mankel's History of Daniel that is eminently readable.

A lot of my reading this month has been in Historical Fiction.  My starter is Peter Carey's excellent True History of the Kelly Gang. Brilliant book that follows Kelly's development from poverty-stricken child to the desperate man making his last stand wearing his home-made armour (plenty of decent replicas about). One Victoria museum has a cast of Kelly's head made after he was hanged. I loved Anita Shreve's Sea Glass about a strike on the East Coast of the USA in 1929-1930. The Memory Man by Lisa Appignanesi is about a neurologist who attends a conference in Vienna and who is led from there back to visit the old death camps and towns of his largely forgotten Polish youth. He suffered under the Nazi's but survived to work beside a doctor in one of the post-World War II Displaced Persons Camps when he decided to become a doctor. Which he did in Canada. The whole novel is about recovering lost memories and is utterly enthralling. Karen harper's Shakespeare's Mistress follows the life in London  of the woman who Shakespeare was licensed to marry the day before he married Anne Hathaway. The last in this group of books is Red Plenty by Francis Spufford.  I really loved it. Each section has a summary of the true facts of an aspect of life in the USSR followed by illustration through fiction. For the aspiring historical fiction writer, this book is a good example of the actual process of writing.

There are only two thrillers this month. Derek Gecone's The Truant Officer and Jill Paton Walsh's Debts of Dishonour. I would recommend the latter as one worth reading more than once. 

And, so to Romance. Amber Dermont's The Starboard Sea is a combination of romance with a bit of murder on the side. Laurel O'Donnell's The Bride and the Brute is a glorious medieval romance in which the hero makes off with the wife of a monster knight. Birdie Jawoski's Don't shoot, I'm just the Avon lady follows the career of a seemingly hopeless single mother which eventually leads to a man. Cinderella the Intern by R S Mendelson is a medical romance. Replica by Lexi Revellian is a combination of sci-fi and romance and is a pretty good read.